Being lost and all alone is big for 2013. Gravity's doing it, with Sandra Bullock bobbing about in the lonely depths of space. All Is Lost is doing it, with Robert Redford trying not to drown when his boat sinks. Captain Phillips is sort of doing it with Tom Hanks trying to survive in a lifeboat with some gun-toting Somali pirates.
What we're saying here is that survival movies are having a moment. So here are ten of the best 'man against adversity' movies guaranteed to make you feel really tense and upset. You're welcome.
This article contains spoilers
Gravity and Captain Phillips are both in cinemas now. All Is Lost hits cinemas on Boxing Day
Buried (2010)
To be survived: Live burial
The rare ‘single victim’ survival movie, in which Ryan Reynolds’ truck driver is kidnapped and buried alive, left only with a lighter and a phone that doesn’t even have Candy Crush on it. You might not think you want 90 minutes of Ryan Reynolds emoting in a box, but you would be very, very wrong. By the end you’ll want to go outside just to revel in all that space.
Most harrowing moment: That ending.
____________________________________________________________
127 Hours (2010)
To be survived: A heavy rock
If you’re going to go exploring in dangerous areas, always tell a friend or family member where you’re going. Aron Ralston did not remember this and was squashed by a massive boulder in a Utah canyon, eventually having to hack his own arm off to escape. Sure, Danny Boyle made an Oscar-nominated movie about him, but is that worth losing a limb for?
Most harrowing moment: The amputation (warning: This clip is extreme)
____________________________________________________________
Touching The Void (2003)
To be survived: Some big mountains
A mix of documentary and recreated scenes, this is the horrifying true story of two mountain climbers who were separated after one of them suffered a broken leg. For the one with command of all his limbs, just making it back to base camp is ordeal enough. The other has to make it back to base camp with a shattered leg, after having fallen down two ravines. So that first man should probably just stop complaining, really.
Most harrowing moment: The rope is cut.
____________________________________________________________
Cast Away (2000)
To Be Survived: A desert island
Tom Hanks is a perennial of the survival genre (see later entry on Apollo 13 and, to an extent, Captain Phillips). In this he’s a Fed-Ex employee whose plane crashes, leaving him marooned on a desert island to grow a big beard and talk to a volleyball, which seems to be the only thing anyone really remembers about the movie.
Most Harrowing Moment: The tooth removal, but there's no clip of that available so here's Tom Hanks on a raft.
____________________________________________________________
Life of Pi (2012)
To be survived: A sinking ship; a tiger
The nature of what’s being survived rather depends on your interpretation of the film. What we can all agree on is that a ship sinks on the journey from India to Canada, with the only human survivor a young man left adrift in the ocean. His journey back to civilisation is one of spiritual enlightenment, metaphorical animals and some very pretty pictures.
Most harrowing moment: The ship in the storm
____________________________________________________________
Alive (1993)
To be survived: A plane crash
The survival movie everybody remembers, even if they haven’t seen it. When a plane carrying the Uruguayan rugby team crashed in the Andes mountains in 1972, the survivors were forced to fend for themselves while they awaited rescue, eventually having to make the choice between starving to death and eating the deceased passengers. We won’t spoil for you the decision they make, but best not watch while eating jerky.
Most harrowing moment: There's no footage of people ingestion, thankfully, so let's go with the crash.
____________________________________________________________
The Impossible (2012)
To be survived: A tsunami
Juan Antonio Bayona puts you horribly in the midst of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in his terrifyingly effective disaster movie. Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts play the parents of a family that is wrenched apart when millions of gallons of water tear through their hotel and wash them and everything else away. If you haven’t cried at least once by the end then you are unfortunately a terrible person.
Most harrowing moment: Dad makes a phone call home.
____________________________________________________________
Lifeboat (1944)
To be survived: A shipwreck; other people
A ship and a U-boat sink in Alfred Hitchcock’s clever gimmick movie, but it’s not so much the elements that have to be survived as the rest of the inhabitants of the single lifeboat. With just one small set to play with, Hitchcock builds the recriminations between the survivors as they try to establish some kind of community in the confines of a little wooden vessel. This being Hitchcock, that community quite quickly turns on itself.
Most harrowing moment: The young mother loses her child.
____________________________________________________________
Apollo 13 (1995)
To be survived: A broken spaceship
Just don’t let Tom Hanks fly things. In this 1995 movie he plays Jim Lovell, the astronaut who had to get himself and his two co-pilots (are astronauts pilots?) home when their ship malfunctions. So it’s a little like Gravity, except Tom’s not on his own and there’s no 3D. So, in essence, is it’s just a lazy Gravity, really. (It’s actually very good)
Most harrowing moment: Everyone back home waits for word from the earthbound ship
____________________________________________________________
The Grey (2011)
To be survived: Wolves, lots of wolves
The central character, John Ottway (Liam Neeson), is a wolf-killer on his last day in the job, so we’re already off to a flyer. On his way home to retirement Ottway’s plane crashes and he and his colleagues are left stranded in wolf territory. A surprisingly bleak movie yet also notable for a scene in which Liam Neeson fends off wolves with gloves made of smashed alcohol miniatures.
Most harrowing noment: Talget ain't gonna make it.
(Images: Allstar)
Latest
Related Reviews and Shortlists
